New swine flu variant shows some resistance to drugs, report says

Jun 13 2011

A new variant of H1N1 (swine) influenza that is easily spread and retains some resistance to the two major drugs used to treat flu has been detected in Singapore and Australia, according to a report from the WHO's influenza research group published in the journal Eurosurveillance, Bloomberg reports (Cortez, 6/9).

Researchers said more than 30 percent of swine flu samples collected in early 2011 in northern Australia and more than 10 percent collected during the same time in Singapore had slightly reduced sensitivity to Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, but there was "no significant reduction in sensitivity to peramivir, an experimental flu drug from BioCryst Pharmaceuticals," according to Reuters (Hirschler, 6/10).